The present invention relates to an apparatus for use with lifting equipment.
Such lifting equipment is e.g. known from No. DE 31 19 806 Al. In the case of this known lifting equipment, a transducer is e.g. directly incorporated ino the force flow path between the supporting structural components of the lifting equipment and a load to be moved by the latter. Admittedly this transducer detects the load states which occur very well. However, from the standpoint of a compensating or adapting device, such as e.g. a damping device in connection with the vibrations which occur, it can make no contribution to the operation of the lifting equipment, because it is substantially rigidly bound into the force flow path.
Lifting equipment, such as e.g. crane installations, which are used for raising and lowering loads and optionally for horizontally moving and conveying such loads, are exposed to considerable additional loads due to the acceleration and deceleration of said load masses. An important and critical load state particularly occurs in the case of raising or breaking loose of a maximum load from the ground with a corresponding nominal lifting speed. Load states can occur, which can be a multiple of the nominal load. On raising an excessive load, as can occur in the case of goods having an undefined weight, or in the case of locking a nominal load conveyed at a nominal lifting speed, the corresponding lifting equipment must be able to absorb the forces which occur or the resulting energy values of the moved loads. In order to be able to deal with such critical load states from the safety standpoint, the lifting equipment and their units are generally overdimensioned. A factor which also determines the overdimensioning is e.g. the lifting load factor, as defined in Deutsche Industrie-Norm (i.e., German industrial standard) 15018, sheet 1. Nevertheless, in the case of the aforementioned critical load states, the units and elements of the lifting equipment, e.g. the supporting structural components or the cables of a pulley block used can generally only compensate or store fractions of the total movement energy occurring during these critical load states without suffering damage. As a result, the lifting equipment is subject to very marked wear as a result of such critical load states and fatigue phenomena to materials prematurely occur, which can in some cases even lead to total destruction of the lifting equipment.